bike culture blogged

Recovering from what I repeatedly called the Worst Giro Ever and complained about tired narratives, the Cima Coppi stage was epic. What fans expect in the mountains and even if we couldn’t see Nibali’s face suffering in the cold, wet, snowy fog. Cycleboredom recaps the stage and reminds us that the sport endures, despite how self-destructive it is.

Then Vincenzo, like so many Grand Tour champions before him, rose from the saddle to stamp his authority on what was already his. Watts per kilogram wasn’t the preferred measurement as the distance to his rivals grew, it was panache per square inch. The tifosi’s already intoxicated mindset was whipped into a frenzy along the switchbacks of Tre Cime di Lavaredo as Nibali emitted raw, unrefined panache in a pheremone-esque fashion.

If you missed the entire 3 weeks, here’s a recap in 140 characters

Giro Recap: brightly dressed, emaciated men pedaling bikes were thrown onto the roads of Italy like bets at a roulette wheel. 1 of them won.

When there are more segments on a route than miles, Strava is played out. A UI that brilliantly renders ride data is lost to the gamification of cycling. Segments are self-quantified expression in a virtual race, a prosthetic cultural happening updated with each upload. Simon Masters was out riding and introduced himself to others on the route. The response

I know you, you’re the KOM of….

He is? Here’s a new game, find a route that hasn’t been strava’d, ride it, and commit it to memory. If in a sharing mood upload the KML to Google, like this or this. And remember, at stoplights, the Garmins shut off.

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As you’ve likely read by now, Spesh built their own wind tunnel in Morgan Hill. Having been on campus a few times, we know they crew that works there has a sense of humor. In the off hours expect they’ve either tested kegs v. cases of beer OR dogs. And it’s dogs!